A hand-tinted (undated) photo of rubber estate workers in Selangor. 'Araro Ariraro' is a feature-length musical documentary exploring the lost history of Tamil plantation workers through their ancestral songs. Photo: Om Sakthi Films
History lingers through Ilham Gallery’s The Plantation Plot exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, not only in paintings, installations and photographs, but also in song.
In one corner, a video installation titled Coolies’ Chorus recalls the voices of Tamil labourers once bound to the plantations in old Malaya. The melodies, bittersweet and plaintive, wash over visitors. Most may not understand the words, yet they remain transfixed, listening.
